Musings on World events from the perspective of a Social and an Economic Liberal.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Jacqui Smith: no ifs, no buts.

In the twenty years since I graduated from University I have travelled greatly. I have stayed in many different hotels all around the world.

If once I had ever submitted an expense form with a claim for a porn film I would have been dismissed for gross misconduct immediately.

The Right Honourable Mrs. Jacqui Smith MP has claimed for two films : one apparently called Raw Meat 3, the other By Special Request. She has blamed her husband. I don't see how that works: it was not her husband who submitted the expenses claim, it was she herself.

This comes on top of the fact that Mrs. Smith has claimed £157,631 in expenses including £22,948 in "Second Home allowance" while seemingly registering her sister's home in South London as her main residence.

This woman is the HOME SECRETARY!!!!

Gordon Brown thinks that this is just a little personal difficulty.

No it isn't.

She should resign forthwith. Since she won't, I will certainly be looking forward to the eviction notice that the good voters of Redditch hand this grasping, dishonourable disgrace on election night.

Smith can join the long list of sleaze that starts with Ashcroft and ends in Yeo.

5 comments:

The woman is clearly too busy trying to think of ways to invade our privacy to check her expenses forms.

To be honest, though, I don't really have too much of an issue with the porn films - people do make mistakes and as long as she pays it back, that's fine by me. It is the very small tip of a very big iceberg.

However, the second home stuff is not good. I agree that she should have accommodation costs met when she is in London, but not those of what is obviously her family home.

Would you really have been dismissed if you'd tried to submit a bill with a porn film on it in error, or would someone from the finance department have not have rung you up and sugggested that you might want to resubmit your form?

It was not just that the firms I worked for did not want to pay for porn. I would have been dismissed because viewing the porn channel would have been considered unworthy of the reputation of the firm- that would have beeen gross misconduct. The fact that this grasping baggage submitted the claim is absolutely outrageous.

It makes all politicans look like crooks- and actually most of them are not. SHE should resign in shame- but shame is apparently not something our politicans do...

Really ,I used to have get corporate membership of the Cherokee Club ( lap dancing and the rest establishment) Yuk yuk On Porn I like Onan the Barbarian as a title but the best genuine jaw dropper I discovered is the quite genuine Shakespearean pastiche “ As you Like It.. Rammed Up your Ass”“The Merchant of Penis “ is a version in which a pound flesh makes an earlier appearance than we might expectI think what bothers me more is Norman Baker pontificating about everyone else ( Including Chris Huhnes travel expenses so none are spared ) but getting his full whack of cash doing a job which allows him the time to write a book fro which he was paid £50,000 by the Daily Mail. His Expenses are in the Argus today. I do not have such free time ,I commute from where he lives ? Why Pay Them At all ?I feel the problem is not the petty corruption but the unimportance of the MPs . I think we need urgent electoral reform to establish a new relationship between the public and their representatives . Why, after all pay powerless lobby fodder anything at all. This is especially the case when, as in the case of Lisbon, the one job they are supposed to do , represent our views , they utterly fail to deliver on. Same with crime immigration etc.

I suggest Open Primaries on safe seats 2 Stage elections with the last two standing contesting all votesHOP timetables to actually debate European legislation currently kept quietSecret HOP ballots on Select Committee membership and wherever possible ( to re-empower the Commons )Action On Boundary reform with the over representation of Inner Cities dealt with. A halving of the MP to bod ratio in devolved countries A third less MPs over allA bonfire of pointless layers of authority I would also recommend PR elections for half the House of Lords at the same time to stop tactical voting and beef up the second chamber

Then our MP`s would be our representative and they would have power, Then we would not mind paying them properly . At the moment they are either doing nothing or conspiring to deny tax payers what they have instructed time to do time and time again

Frankly, I think you doth protest too much. This is an embarrassment for Smith, not the end of Civilisation as we know it. MPs' expenses require clarification. As for the rest, it appears that the new Westminster game is MPs snitching on each other about trivia.